Above The Influence, the youth-oriented, anti-drug media campaign run by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has a new, avatar-based ad campaign which warns gamers that their skills will be negatively impacted by smoking pot.

To dramatize how bad a stoner can be at video games, the site interviews a computer-generated character who laments the demise of a gamer friend of hers. "I used to have a good time with Lyle. We made a good team. He had skill. He had swiftness," she says. "Well, he used to, anyway. Then our last fight, Lyle decided to get high. And it was simply: sayonara skill, sayonara swiftness."

The Above the Influence campaign points out that perception, memory and eye-hand coordination are all reduced by marijuana use.

Comments

after reading state's comments i lol'd so hard i almost wet myself. with that being said...

though i am not a user myself what he is saying is the same fear-mongering that has been happening since the early part of the 19th century. as people have stated before marijuana has been linked TO ZERO LONG-TERM NEGITIVE EFFECTS (look to studies done by the FDA as well as other U.S. deptments and those done over seas), and yes it is many times safer the Alcohol or tobbaco. it does not increase the chances of lung cancer and does not effect memory loss (execpt while you are under the influence). it is proven that drinking leads to liver and memory problems as well as increased aggresion, while tobbaco has been proven to lead to lung cancer and birth defects (see the side of ANY pack of cig's). though chemical tests did reveal higher amounts of chemicals the tests done should be viewed as null-and-void do to the fact that test sample where accuired through seized property and control tobbaco samples. meaning that the tobbaco samples where grown under govermental supervision following regulations, while the marijuana samples where grown outside of these regualtions. meaning that chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticides, and other growth stimulants where most likely used. (as stated by DEA representatives about grow farms and other drug manufacturing plants.)

as far as the whole it leading to schizophrenia thing, that is nothing but lies. i have seen the studies that they did they found it didnt increase the chances, though some did suffer from schizophrenia the numbers were the same as the control group (meaning prior schizopheric behavior was present). and though THC is a minor form of acid it didnt lead to any trigger events NO MATTER THE DOESAGE.

all-in-all i am completely for legilization of marjuana, so think for your own people dont beileve every thing big brother tells you. with that i leave you with a comment made by the partnership for a drug free america.

"We felt the effects of marijuana were so dangerous that it was better to lie to the American public to save them rather than tell them the truth." -- Partnership for a Drug Free America

I can't believe the people that just relay bullshit seemingly without even thinking about it. "marijuana isn't safer to smoke then cigarettes... same old propaganda about lots of chemicals, carcinogens" Yet know one gets cancer from it. It doesn't have an unusually large amount of chemicals as a plant. It may seem dangerous on paper but in the real world it's virtually harmless.

The only people that have real lung problems that "just smoke weed" are the ones that are 'just smoking weed' in a tobacco(or sometimes mostly chemical bondent crap)wrap.

Marijuana is FAR FAR FAR safer then alcohol, period. No matter how you using it. Marijuana can't kill you, alcohol CAN. Marijuana doesn't make responsible people drive impaired, alcohol DOES. Marijuana doesn't make people violent, alcohol does. You can get as high as you want and your only going to feel kind of shitty, groggy, burnt out in a couple hours. Get a small fraction of how drunk you really can be and you can still feel REALLY shitty in a few hours.(good thing theirs pot to help with the hangovers.)

Marijuana gets you high, it impairs you. Thats why people smoke it/vape it/eat it. Theres no point in using that against it. Due to laws it's became its primary purpose to get you high, unlike what I imagine it used to be, before all this nonsense.

The only time your ever going to be so high that you could somehow consider driving a good idea is when your far to high to actually accomplish getting the car started(never mind finding the keys and getting off the couch to go to the car. Good luck remembering why you were going to drive if make it that far.) My point it you would have to be retardedly stoned.(unusually stoned)

A responsible person would let a sober friend hold on to their keys or do something if they REALLY thought they were going to not have control over them selfs while high.

Lets face it. The only argument against weed is that it makes impaired and does a ridiculously small amount of damage to your lungs compared to pretty much ANYTHING else you could smoke.

Marijuana has chemicals that are GOOD for you. Most of the things that you would attribute to negative effects(say on the lungs) are counteracted by the good chemicals. There may be things that could potentially cause cancer(When smoked) but there also things in it that are shown to do the opposite. You would think it would be a bad idea for someone with asthma to smoke yet in most cases it would actually help.

Seems like marijuana has changed the meaning of some words, like 'dangerous', 'drug', 'addictive'. I guess not so much change as much as bend the meaning or find a loophole in it.

Marijuana doesn't make people stupid, stupid people blame marijuana for all their problems.

Lets pretend pot is this devil plant that propaganda publishers would like you to think... Why is it a "controlled substance." Thats doublespeak, theres nothing controlled about it. Anything on that list they have absolutely zero control over becasue they put it into the hands of criminals. It makes no sense.

I'm for the legalization of recreational heroin(and other drug) use before marijuana becasue it's DANGEROUS!(heroin) It should be regulated not put on a list and throw taxpayers money at the problem they created. What a joke! Somethings supposedly dangerous so let's let criminals distribute it to anyone instead of real regulation like alcohol. Where it is harder for kids to get it. Making things illegal makes them more readily available. It's much easier for a kid to get pot then beer. Theres more people selling drugs then companies selling alcohol.

I guess some areas a kid might have an easier time acquiring some alcohol, but thats what state laws are for, am I right? Theres no one to step in when drugs are sold(illegally) to kids.

Speaking of kids and drugs... Hello, sugar, aspartame, caffeine. Candy seems to be more harmful then marijuana and it contains physically addicting chemicals. The only difference is theres no lost profits and false stigmas attached to candy. The only thing people think about with candy is teeth problems(and I hear now teeth and gum problems more related to other physically health problems then before thought.) I'd really like to see the affects of aspartame on a kids brain compared to marijuana.

My favorite thing I'd have to say I read in this thread is "Guns do not change chemicals in people's brains." That made me laugh. I'm sure if used correctly a gun can seriously alter someones brain chemistry. LOL

This is a joke! One who you testing this argument on? Everyday smokers who also happen to be everyday gamers?? I bet if you cloned me, the "high" me would kick the "sober" me's ass! Frigging government! Like some fat lil' 14 year old kid is sitting around playing WoW while hitting a bong! What a gay argument! You think someone is going to stop smoking cuz someone else said there gaming is going to take a hit! Plus I play PC games and I use aimbotz anyway so I can just sit back and laugh while im high, plus pwn every lil sober fag!

Wow looks like they properly identified the only dangers of the drug...

Other dangers include curing cancer, preventing memory loss, preventing brain damage as well as the treatment of dozens if not hundreds of medical conditions without the usual thousands of deaths associated with legal alternatives... that is because to die from pot, you would need to use 1,500 pounds of it in 15 minutes...(this is a theoretical number provided by researchers which were unable to kill animals with it no matter how much they tried...)

Marijuana is typically demonized for many reasons, and it not being legal have many issues ranging from it's a weed that grows easily (unlike fermenting alcohol) so it'd be hard to control to the other end of smoking too much will make you a danger behind the weed ('Sir/Madam, your eyes are really red, have you been smoking marijuana or did you accidently rub your eyes too much/had something on them, tired, ect...") Unlike alcohol there isn't a quick and easy test to find out your current levels of THC.

As for the whole 'marijuana causes brain damage' arguement is only half true, being that it's always being used when compaired to a 15 year old child who's brain is still developing and has what is called brain plasticity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_plasticity) which is when the brain is still forming (ie not fully grown like an adult) any and all mind altering substances (marijuana, alcohol, pain medication, ect...) can easily cause your brain to be re-wired which is a favorite concept of these anti-drug ads. It also doesn't work on a adult brain since it isn't effected by brain plasticity, with tests showing that marijuana use by adults only cause up to (not always) 48 hours of forming new memories (alcohol does this too but only during excessive use, and is typically refered to as 'blacking out'), this is way a stoner might have a hard time answering what happened 2 hours ago since it's a newer memory but can tell you all about there childhood since they didn't smoke weed then. THe only major effect marijuana has is that it lowers testosterone, which when reduced also removes aggressive behavior and that is why people claim to feel so calm when smoking weed. It can also play a few issues with your body, where is has been known for really heavy male smokers do begin to develope breasts since there is a lot of estrogen present in the body and not enough testosterone to combat it (starts around the age of 50, and you have to be smoking like 5 joints a day).

Now because these issues only crop up with minors and wouldn't help if the ads had to mention that part they leave it out. One of the major issues never mentioned about alcohol which is mentioned in the Buzzed book is that being drunk is your brain's way of saying that it is suffering perminate damage (if you don't drink much you can gain around 80% of the damage back) since there are no nerves in the brain to tell you otherwise (it's why during brain surgery they will only apply a local painkiller instead of gas/IV/local injection. What is happening is the outer parts of the brain start to die but it takes a lot of alcohol abuse to cause massive damage that would be noticable (like you see with a major alcoholic).

And before someone mentions it (or I missed it) marijuana is not addictive like crack and alcohol. It is although psychology addictive being that if you use it a lot in the same settings you will crave it (ie if you smoke only late at night when you are alone you can find yourself wanting to smoke weed when your alone late at night) but it's not a true addiction like cigg's since you won't care about smoking weed during the day at work but you will want that cigg no matter what or where when it hits

Someone mentioned that many illegal drugs have medical usage, which is true. A very large hospital will possess (under lock and key) pure cocain for surgery on people with heart problems (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/cocaine.html#2). All painkillers cause your heart to slow down, but it the person has heart issues it can cause the heart to just stop and not start again so the doctor will rub the area with pure cocain to cause the numbness but with the method it does not enter the brain so the heart does not speed up. Marijuana has historically been used to help control nausa, menstral cramps, lose of appitite and is currently and illegally used to help cope with the effects of chemotherapy.

Due to minors having brain plasticity I am highly against minors from smoking marijuana due to the fact that it is a very harmful substance for them to be using, but for the same reasons, I wouldn't give a minor any drugs or alcohol just to get high/drunk. THe usage of a drug on a minor must be weighted by things like the amount of the drug and the medical usage and figuring out which has the least side effects (killing pain or possible brain damage.

Always best to read up a subject instead of believing what one person or in this case ad has to say.

On the topic of the article alone... who friggin cares? It's a game. If the group cared THAT much that I was inhibited I would definitley be changing to a new group. My guild finds it funny as hell when I play drunk.

I play rockband almost exclusively drunk or high with friends at partys, and depending on various things( how drunk/high, difficulty of song) i can usualy play with about the same ability, unless i am very drunk(barely able to stand drunk).

Wow... not even gonna try to read through all those half-on-topic the comments about legality or alleged physiological side effects.

From personal experience, gaming when one isn't used to being high can make the player worse at accomplishing the goals of the game. But when one has trained themselves to play said games high, playing again sober makes it that much easier.

You guys are all missing the point, you damn potheads. The whole issue of legalization has nothing to do with health issues. Studies have tried for decades to prove with conviction that pot is dangerous and damaging to oneself but they have failed. Don't you think after decades and decades of scientific research that if pot was dangerous it would have been proven by now? The fact is that pot does so little damage that it is immeasurable. Why do people focus on the health issues associated with smoking pot? Ciggarettes are legal and they kill tens of millions of people every year. Kind of hypocritical no? Alcohol kills millions every year yet that is legal. Why? Because people have a right to do whatever they want to themselves. Why does the government have to step in and say "Hey now, you might get short-term memory problems while you're using pot, and possibly have lung problems years from now so we're gonna make the decision for you and become your mother and say no. You're not allowed to smoke pot, now go to your room (prison for 10 years)."

The government does NOT have that right. Yet Americans everywhere have been fooled into thinking that their leaders have some say. So after 70 years of prohibition, you've all been tricked into thinking this is normal. But it is not. The government has no more right to tell you what you can eat/smoke/inject than I do.

If the government passed a law that outlawed eating beef, people would be outraged. After 70 years however, anyone old enough to remember a time before beef prohibition would be dead. And then the government would say "They died so young because they ate beef. JUST SAY NO TO BEEF!"

What happened was someone said: Cannabis = Safe, Alcohol = Dangerous and stating that alcohol is much more dangerous than cannabis, which is wrong. It doesn't even have anything to do with its legal status , people believe that as soon as health problems are brought up it means that its justification for its illegal status.

Quite frankly the jury is out on cannabis causing mental illness, and especially as the stronger GM stuff comes about there is still much to learn (with many currently concerned over its links to schizophrenia), so to category deny that cannabis causes health problems is wrong. Alcohol due to about 99% of adults consuming it, we know just about all there is to know about it.

I don't think people see the role of personal responsibility. Just because you do something doesn't mean that you have to justify its "safeness" (which really seems to be about morality). People take part in extreme sports for instance, knowing for well the risks involved (they don't justify their actions by calling it safe). With smoking the health facts are laid out and it is up to the individual whether they want to take it up or not, I just don't know why people need to justify their cannabis use by claiming its safe, instead of just saying "I know there are a lot of health concerns over it, but I've decided that I still want to do it regardless, it's my body at the end of the day".

Safe? We're at a point where it's not only safe, but extremely healthy and a treatment for both AIDS and cancer. It'll probably bring us world peace, the meaning of live and the actual ultimate question about life, the universe and everything too, if we would just let it.

Perhaps I'm a bit too cynical, but when a lot of people desperately want something legalized, for years, and then suddenly, completely out of the blue, that very thing turns out to to have uses in treating both AIDS and cancer, I'm more than sceptical.

Cannabis is a safer drug than aspirin and can be used long-termwithout serious side effects, says a book by a leading Oxford scientist.The Science of Marijuana, by Dr Leslie Iversen of OxfordUniversity's department of pharmacology, found many "myths" surroundingmarijuana use, such as extreme addictiveness, or links with mentalillness or infertility are not supported by science.He also found cannabis is an inherently "safe drug" which does notlead to cancer, infertility, brain damage or mental illness.Legalisation of the drug for medical conditions should be considered,he says.Dr Iversen's findings will increase pressure on the Government to reopen the debate about the decriminalisation of marijuana.The author, a fellow of the prestigious Royal Society, foundcannabis was far less toxic than other drugs and had "an impressiverecord" compared with heroin, cocaine or tobacco and alcohol.His study showed that the active element of cannabis,tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC ), which made users high, had a lot ofpotential as a safe drug to treat Aids patients and people sufferingsevere pain.He also found "stoned" drivers were less dangerous and able toco-ordinate than people who were drunk. "By any standards, THC must beconsidered a very safe drug both acutely and on long-term exposure," hewrites. "The available animal data are more than adequate to justifyits approval as a human medicine, and indeed it has been approved bythe FDA [American drug authority] for certain limited therapeuticindications."The book says "alarming claims about the harmful effects oflong-term exposure to cannabis" should be "put to rest", and there "isno evidence the drug causes any impairment in fertility or sexualfunction in men or women". He says people who stop using cannabis donot suffer long-term side-effects."Cannabis does not cause structural damage to the brains of animalsas some reports had claimed, nor is there evidence of long-term damageto the human brain or other than slight residual impairments incognitive function after drug use is stopped." The author says manyadverse effects of cannabis are related to smoking the drug.But cannabis itself did not appear to cause cancer. Compared withalcohol and cigarettes, which led to more than 100,000 deaths a year,cannabis had a far better record."Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug," he said. "Despite thewidespread illicit use of cannabis here are very few if any instancesof people dying from an overdose. Even such apparently innocuousmedicines as aspirin and related steroidal anti-inflammatory compoundsare not safe."Thousands of people die every year because of the tendency of these drugs to cause catastrophic gastric bleeding."Read on: onmarijuana.com, saferchoice.orgoriginal post @ http://wiseperception.com/node/188

70 Years OldLeslie L. Iversen, Ph.D. has been the Chairman of our Board of Directors since December 2000. He has served as a director since 1998. He also was a founding member of our Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Iversen is currently a Professor of Pharmacology at University of Oxford, England, where he has taught since 1995. He was previously a Professor of Pharmacology at King"s College, London where he was Director of the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases from 1999 until 2004. Dr. Iversen is internationally recognized for his fundamental contributions to the understanding of neurotransmission. Dr. Iversen served as Vice President of Neuroscience Research, Merck Research Laboratories and Director of the Neuroscience Research Center of Merck Research Laboratories in the UK. He was formerly Director of the Medical Research Council Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge. More recently, Dr. Iversen founded and serves as a director of Panos Therapeutics Ltd. Dr. Iversen is the recipient of numerous awards, including Fellow of the Royal Society of London and Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. Dr. Iversen received a Ph.D. and B.A. from the University of Cambridge.

Honestly, nothing would thrill me more than to see a bunch of people actually get a real punishment for drug use instead of a slap on the wrists.

They should just legalize the drugs and tax the income -- then they should loosen up the "self defense" and gun laws. That way when people do drugs and act irresponsible by breaking into homes because they can't afford to buy their daily fix, those of us who are still in their right mind can "defend" themselves legally.

It may not make the place safer, but people would sure think twice before they tried to do anything.

I normally wouldn't care about the drug debate, but I lost 10K woth of electronics and music because of a crank and pot junkie while I was away on business. There is nothing worse than getting a call from police while setting up a large system in another state and not knowing _exactly_ what was stolen.

Praetorian

"I've been told I'm the resident skeptic, but I wouldn't believe that."

Praetorian The trouble is we have so many minor criminals we can not house them all we as a society do not have the money to manage them, you have 3 choices here let them go when the jail is full, kill off hard violent offenders within a year of inprsionment(to reduce hard crime in part but also relive jail numbers) or refocus the the quagmire of the drug war not to fighting the gangs/cartels on the streets directly but to healthcare and filling vice via legalized drugs and programs to take care of addicts as so they wont have to steal.

If you legalize drugs and run a fair/flat tax based off whats sold you will do so much damage to the black market cartels they could not afford to supply the nation and be reduced to mere localized gangs not nation wide mobsters.

Gore,Violence,Sexauilty,Fear,Emotion these are but modes of transportation of story and thought, to take them from society you create a society of children and nannys, since adults are not required.

I can believe crank would cause this, but pot? Have you ever SEEN someone on pot? It's like watching a 3 year old in a new playhouse. Also depending on your state the laws already fit what you mentioned, texas you are allowed to shoot anyone who enters your home for the purpose of hurting you your family or stealing. I think you can do the same for your yard after a certain time of day as well.

Aside from the obvious health risks of intaking smoke into the body (which can be easily negated by using a vaporizor or by using cannibis in cooking as has been mentioned) there are no stodies that have proven any negative health or memory effects from cannibis long term. Short term memory and motor skills are effected alone. You could say it contributes to obesity but really that's a stretch of an arguement against it.

And unlike most of these arguments which seem to be taken from mass media and the anti-drug compaigns my facts come from medical practitioners and professionals (IE my doctors, nurses and friends who are) I don't partake but I have a LOT of friends that do and wanted to know if I should be concerned, the basic response besides details is "If they're eating it or using a vaporizor it's 100% safe."

Man there is a lot of kool-aid drinking going on in here. There is no speculation. Alcohol is in fact far worse for your body and mind than marijuana is. Other than lung problems, marijuana has actually recently been found to stop cancer cells from forming and/or getting worse. www.youtube.com/watch

One fact I am positive about though is that no one who is "stoned" comes home and beats their wife and children. Stoners are generally happy people. Alcoholics.... not so much.

I don't really do much of either anymore but the bullshit in here was getting too strong.

Marijuana needs to be decriminalized. It should be a monetary fine at best.

I would like to point out a documentary about cannabis i found on youtube. Just look it up and watch it, its titled "Marijuana documentary". You will be suprised about the things you will found out in the movie. Like cannibis's ability to replace trees as a source of paper. Just so you know, i am all for cannabis

Fuck Above the Influence. Nothing but complete bullshit, just like Truth. They lie out the ASS just to get their points across, which usually even aren't that great to begin with, sounding like a bunch of scared little pussies of the big bad world. Yeah, people smoke cigarettes, and yeah, they smoke pot.

Well guess what. War on Drugs = complete failure. So shut up already.

Also, my friend Jeremy is a big pot smoker, and I play games with him quite frequently. I noticed very little affect on his gameplay.

On the other hand, I've heard anecdotal stories of competitive gamers abusing cocaine in order to get an edge during major tournaments. It'd be tragically funny if this ad inadvertently pushed some gamers toward harder and more dangerous drugs.

People have died because they consumed too much water. Sorry, I don't buy it. You can overdose on anything. Alcohol, water, vitamins - why should pot of all things be different, other than because you desperately wished it?

Currently in the UK there are health campaigns about the dangers of cocaine (not crack cocaine, but just cocaine), because most people don't know of them because it is seen as being one of the safer illegal drugs (all drugs that are illegal aren't safe), such health problems include heart disease. But the effects on the brain are minor when compared to cannabis.

Tobacco isn't safe...but if you do it in moderation you greatly reduce the chance of health risks.

Driving isn't safe...but if you're attentive and follow the driving laws you greatly reduce the chance of getting into an accident.

As for the last comment, laws have been changed over time to reflect both changes in public attitude and in light of new information about the subject. In the case of pot, some health risks aside, most of the reasons to not legalize it has either been proven false such as labeling it a narcotic.

Really, we can do this all day and the only thing that will come from it is raising the number of comments for this article.

It's be theorized that you can OD on pot...if you smoke something like 3.2 KILOS of it. Which no one could ever do. You'd just pass out into sweet, sweet stoner sleep before you get up to half an ounce.

Heck, only a loser cares about playing to one's best ability in a game. It's not about winning - it's about the fun to be had while playing, and a whole lot of fun can be had when you're playing while drunk or high.

On the cannabis vs. legal drugs issue, I really don't care which is more dangerous for me. I just want the government to get out of the business of telling me what chemicals I should or should not be putting in my own body. That stuff is for my doctor to advise me on and for me to make the decision about. No one else should be involved.

EZK Lets lobotomize the public and turn them into drones so that those with the intelligence to lead and reproduce are allowed to do so in absolution, its no different than trying to remove humans and vice in fact those lobotomized would be much happier being less intelligent and not having to deal with human drivers and needs....

Gore,Violence,Sexauilty,Fear,Emotion these are but modes of transportation of story and thought, to take them from society you create a society of children and nannys, since adults are not required.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm